Wisconsin Cheese Adds Value

When you turn cheeseburgers into Wisconsin Cheeseburgers, you’re not just adding extra flavor, you’re adding the prestige of award-winning quality. Quality your customers will pay a premium for.
Click HERE to visit the Wisconsin Cheese Burger page and get the recipe for the Wisconsin Blue Cheese Burger with Bacon Walnut Chutney shown below!

McDonald’s Plans McCafé Retail Rollout in 2015

McDonald’s Corp. will announce today that its long-awaited, full-tilt entrance into the $11 billion-plus U.S. retail coffee market will take place early next year when it rolls out McCafé coffee in ground, whole-bean and single-cup forms through a partnership with Kraft.

“We think this will increase the awareness of the McCafé brand beyond its current in-restaurant strength and that will encourage more people to try it. I think it allows us to tap into that very large base of coffee drinkers who now make their coffee at home. This will give us access to them as well,” Greg Watson, senior VP, McDonald’s U.S. Menu Innovation told BurgerBusiness.com.

Retail coffee is hardly an inconsequential market. Data from Statista shows that the average American adult spent $21.32 a week on coffee in 2013. Packaged Facts estimates that 77% of the market ($37 billion) is coffee consumed at foodservice. That leaves 23% or an $11.2 billion market for coffee sold at retail. McDonald’s could use a nice chunk of that market.

Kraft has “been a wonderful partner in this process. They bring deep coffee expertise and a great distribution network and manufacturing capabilities,” Watson said. “It’s a strong marriage between the two brands.” McDonald’s gave away McCafé coffee over a two-week period ended April 13 this year to increase awareness and trial and to blunt Taco Bell’s introduction of a breakfast menu.

In Oct. 2012 BurgerBusiness.com was the first to report that McDonald’s had trademarked its McCafé name for whole bean and ground coffee. It began selling McCafé coffee in Canada in November 2012. Earlier this year, McDonald’s began testing the bagged coffee at a few supermarkets.

Packaged in 12-oz. bags, McCafé will be offered ground in Premium Roast, Breakfast Blend, French Roast, Colombian, Premium Roast Decaf and French Vanilla and Hazelnut plus a French Roast Whole Bean. Watson said he expects pricing to be roughly the same as the $7.29 for a 12-oz. bag at which it was sold in the test markets.

Single-Cup (pod) coffee will be offered in Premium Roast, French Roast and Premium Roast Decaf varieties. Mintel reports U.S. consumers bought $3.1 billion worth of coffee pods in 2013, compared with $132 million in 2008. One-quarter of Americans now own single-serve brewing systems such as the Keurig. Other foodservice brands—including Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme—already market their coffee in pods as well as ground.

Packaging (shown at right) developed for the U.S. tests and different than that used in Canada will be used for the national rollout. “We found strong acceptance of that package and we think it really represents the brand well,” Watson said.

Premium Roast—the coffee served in McDonald’s restaurants—was the top seller during the test marketing, but it did not cannibalize restaurant sales. “In our test we didn’t see any impact on our restaurant coffee business,” Watson said. Availability won’t be national from any one day on, he said. Rather there will be a rollout to stores within a short time frame early in 2015.

Initially, the bagged McCafé coffees will be sold only through grocery, mass merchandise, club and drug retailers and will be not be available in McDonald’s restaurants. Asked if that might change down the road, Watson said, “We’ll continue to look at that; it is definitely a possibility for the future.”

Asked how many pounds of McCafé coffee McDonald’s hopes to sell in 2015, Watson said simply, “Lots.”

Why not improve the coffee experience with a lid for the cup that assures maintaining the aroma,and eliminating the fear of spillage on clothes, and sealing the lid with a portable tab that represents the most innovative solution the
“to-go” lid has experienced in almost 80 years.

Maybe shouldn’t ask, but does McDonald’s actually sell its own coffee? By that I mean does McD have its own bean buyers combing the globe, or is their coffee from one of the big name coffee brands and repackaged as McCafe? Seeing Kraft involved made my wheels turn.

Fair question. McD’s certainly isn’t in the coffee sourcing/roasting business. Kraft could be doing at least the bean grinding since McD’s acknowledges Kraft’s role in “manufacturing” as well as distribution of McCafe.

Nothing wrong with the idea of McCafe coffee in supermarkets, and Kraft certainly knows how to roast good coffee, but the pricing strategy/positioning seems way off. McDonalds says it’s going to price its coffee higher than roasted coffee from either Seattle’s Best and higher than Dunkin Donuts. Consumers expect to see the same positioning in licensed food products that they see in the brand’s “core” space, but McDonalds and Kraft appear to be asking them to make McCafe a more premium brand at Kroger than it is at McDonalds.

This cannot be rolled out fast enough! I’ve been driving to McD’s every morning for years just to get a cup of morning glory! My husband and I are spending our second winter in the Florida Keys and the closest McD’s is 12 miles away which is just a little too far to travel every morning. I’m going crazy trying to make an acceptable substitute in our RV. The “SCAA” website has educated me on how to brew great coffee but I need right beans/grounds to start with. My new Bunn is getting delivered this week and I am scanning the internet daily for McD’s bagged coffee release date!

Back of the House

The Burgers of the Month

The March Burger of the Month at Burgerhaus in Indianapolis is The Dublin. The build starts with a custom-ground beef burger patty and adds roasted sliced potatoes & tomatoes, locally sourced jowl bacon, imported Dubliner cheese, a smoky Guinness-reduction sauce, Irish pickled cabbage and scallions, all on our pretzel roll and served with onion rings.
To see the full list of March's Burger of the Month specials around the globe, click Burgers of the Month .